Williams helps Storm beat Liberty in Bird’s New York finale

Gabby Williams scored 23 points, a record for the season, in Seattle’s 81 to 72 win over New York Liberty on Sunday. This was Storm guard Sue Bird’s last regular-season game in her hometown.

Bird, the league’s most successful assist leader, announced Thursday that her retirement would take place at the close of the 2022 season. She was born in Long Island and grew up just one hour away from Barclays Center.

Bird ended the game by scoring a 3-pointer with 18.9 seconds remaining in the shot clock. To the awe of the crowd, she held her follow through and received a standing ovation when she left the game. The 21-year-old veteran finished the game with 11 points.

The Liberty honored Bird pregame with a tribute video. Former teammates Sami Whitcomb (video, 4 min.) and Natasha Howard (jami-stitching, 3 min.) gave Bird a jacket/jersey featuring every New York team.

New Yorkers wore shirts made from that material. said: “Thank you Sue. While they were warming up an hour before the game, Love, New York” was said.

Bird needed 100 tickets to buy tickets for her family members and friends who were interested in seeing her last game in New York. The crowd — one of the biggest of the season — included her mom, Nancy.

Bird, 41 years old, received a standing ovation when she was introduced to the crowd. She had two points, three assists, two rebounds and three points in the first period as Seattle led 39-37 at halftime.

The game was tight all the way. Seattle (10-6) led 75 to 72 in the final minute. Williams hit a 3-pointer with 53.3 sec left from the wing following a scramble for it.

Marine Johannes scored 23 points to lead New York (6-10), a career high. Sabrina Ionescu scored 12 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds to lead New York (6-10).

Sky beat by Fever

NaLyssa Smith scored a career-high 26 points — including a go-ahead three-point play in the closing seconds to help the Indiana Fever erase a 15-point second-half deficit and beat the Chicago Sky 89-87 on Sunday.

Smith was fouled after she hit a turnaround jumper from her left block and made a free throw to give Fever a lead of 88-87 with 39 seconds left.

Chicago missed two shots at the other end, before Victoria Vivians fouled her with 7.8 seconds left. To give the Fever two points, she made 1-of-2 foul throws.

Courtney Vandersloot missed the baseline jumper, and the Sky called timeout. The Fever continued to play.

For Indiana (5-13), Kelsey Mitchell had 13 points and nine assists. Emma Cannon, who went into game with 14 points this season — scored 11 points and Hull finished with a career-best 10 points. Smith, the No. Smith, the No. 2 overall selection in April’s draft was 11-of-17 on shooting and had 11 rebound.

Kahleah Copper was 8 of 13 from the field, 4 out 6 from 3-point range, 8 of 10 at the free-throw line, and finished with a career high 28 points for Sky (10-5). Vandersloot scored 13 points and provided seven assists. Meesseman added 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists to go along with three blocks.

Candace Parker of Chicago, who averages 12.4 point, 7.9 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per contest this season, was unable to play her second consecutive game because of a knee injury.

Copper converted a three-point play in the closing seconds of the first half and made two free throws to open the third quarter to cap a 21-3 run and give the Sky a 15-point lead — their biggest of the game.

Mitchell scored six points while Smith scored six. Danielle Robinson made two free shots to give the Fever a lead of 57-56 with 4:20 remaining.

Mystics beat Sun

Elena Delle Donne scored all fifteen of her points in halftime, and the Washington Mystics beat Connecticut Sun 71-63.

Washington’s Ariel Atkins and Shatori Walk-Kimbrough both scored 10 points (11-7).

Delle Donne converted a 3 point play, and then hit a 3 pointer just a minute later. This made it 14-9 midway through quarter one. The Mystics were leading the rest.

Connecticut scored six points consecutively to reduce its deficit by eight minutes. Alysha Carl scored four points in a 70 spurt that made it 38-24 with 6 minutes remaining. The Sun couldn’t recover.

Jonquel Jones scored 15 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in the Sun (12-4).

Ogunbowale scores 5 3s, as Wings defeat Sparks

Arike Ogunbowale scored 27 points with five 3-pointers, Marina Mabrey had 21 points for the season and the Dallas Wings won 92-82 against the Los Angeles Sparks.

Allisha Gray scored 20 points for Dallas, with a season-high 12 rebound, six assists, and three steals. Kayla Thornton scored 15 points for Dallas (8-8). After losing four consecutive games and six of their last seven, the Wings have won back to back games.

Katie Lou Samuelson hit a pull-up jumper to give the Sparks a 45-43 lead with about a minute left in the first half but Dallas score the final seven points of the half — capped by Gray’s three-point play with 0.7 seconds left — to take a five-point lead into the break and the Wings never again trailed.

Los Angeles shot just 1/10 from the field and made five turnovers within the first 6 minutes. Dallas, on the other hand, used a 16-4 stretch to increase its lead to 65-49. Marina Mabrey’s 3-pointer in the middle of the period gave Dallas a 66-49 advantage.

Los Angeles (5-9), led by Nneka Oluwumike with 17 points, shooting 6-of-7 and grabbing 10 rebounds. Brittney Sykes scored 16 points, Chiney Okwumike added 12, and Samuelson 11.

The Sparks, which had a five-game losing streak earlier in the season, have now lost three consecutive games.

Ogunbowale’s average scoring is 26.3 points per game on 49% shooting from behind the arc over the past three matches. She has made 15 out of 27 (35.6%) attempts from the 3-point range in that time span.